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As I wrote previously, I wanted to see the Masterpieces from Paris art exhibition in Canberra featuring works from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
This post is long overdue and I almost didn't write it, but better late than never! The exhibition finished on 18 April, about 2.5 weeks ago and is going to travel around the world while the Musée d'Orsay undergoes renovation.
First of all, you are not allowed to take photos there. Not only for this exhibition but inside the entire gallery. However, there are some photos taken by the museum themselves here on Flickr (speaking of Flickr, I changed the language settings to French (at the bottom of the page)).
I was ready for a massive long wait so I got there early, well as early as I could after a very packed and tiring day the day before, driving down and visiting several sites of interest along the way.
I forgot to buy my ticket online but was surprised to find that when I got there at 9 I could buy tickets for the next session at 9:30. I didn't have to wait long in the queue at all but it was freezing!
The day before it was in the mid-high 20's and there was a cold change in Canberra and Canberra is a pretty cold city anyway, being up in the mountains so I was shocked but nonethless prepared. The night before it was around 5ºC or less. It was windy day too but the sky was a brilliant blue without a single cloud in the sky.
I only had to wait a short time in the queue but once inside, we had to wait again but it wasn't too bad. I'm so glad I chose to go on a quiet day though. I imagine it would've been chaos on a weekend or public holiday.
There were 6 rooms so there was quite a lot to look at! What I noticed were the titles of the artworks and their translations.
I noticed a lot of "à la/au/aux"s which were translated as "with" and the world "ombrelle" came up a lot too. It's an interesting word this ombrelle because it sounds so similar to umbrella, yet the French word for that is parapluie (around/near the rain). Even though the gallery (or whoever) translated ombrelle as umbrella, judging by the paintings it was more like a parasol. Yet the French don't seem to use the word parasol much?? (could parasol originally be parasoleil? ie "around/near the sun").
That's about as far as I got with the titles. I tried to translate them myself in my head but it was way too hard because they were words/objects not commonly used in every day life. Oh, I do remember another word I learnt: baigneuses = (female) bathers or "bathing beauties".
Obviously I'd seen and heard of the well known paintings which was amazing in real life but I was also fascinated by some of the lesser known ones.
You can see them all on the gallery's website here.
Of course I was totally awestruck and mesmorised by their talent!
I adored the kids art room. I know I'm not a kid but I was so tempted to do some arts/crafts in there (of course I didn't!) I loved the dark blue "Starry starry night" wall with the paper cuttings of stars with gold and silver paper, and the kids still life artworks.
There was also a real life replica of Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles (one of my all-time favourite paintings!)
I also checked out the rest of the gallery (which I had never been to before; it's huge!) and there were some great artworks there such as the famous Blue Poles by Jackson Pollack.
It was definitely worth driving 4 hours for! :D
C'était merveilleux et l'exposition m'a plu.
The gift shop was also wonderful, featuring so many wonderful stylish French goodies, and postcard replicas of some of the paintings and art and design books, etc.
Afterwards, I went for a short walk around the peaceful Lake Burley Griffin and saw two black swans. Despite the cold it was a beautiful day and sunny. We saw other sights of interest and did lots of things on this very short holiday and overall I had a fantastic time and was so sad when I had to go home and back to my normal every day life, but that's life! There will be more adventures to come :)
